Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland, also France, although only in name, from the 17th of November, 1558 till the time of her death. She is sometimes called as The Virgin Queen, simply because she never got married.

She was the sixth and last ruler belonging to the Tudor dynasty. Her reign of forty-five years was marked with the rise of English power and global influence, and religious tumult in England.

She has been arguably one of the most successful rulers in English history. Her most notable achievement is the defeat of the Spanish Armada in the year 1588. Her reign is regarded as one of England's zeniths; it saw the emergence of great personalities like Sir Walter Raleigh and William Shakespeare.

 Whether or not in reality, Elizabeth I really earned this title we will never really know.
Elizabeth was an extremely intelligent and strong monarch who was determined never to let her position in a male dominated society be undermined.
The idea of a virgin queen was also a very strongly symbolic and powerful image.
She was known to have had strong relationships with many men but never gave way to any pressures to marry. To marry would have weakened her strong hold on her absolute power. She knew that she may not have survived bearing children and saw her first duty as to her country. To marry a foreign monarch may have weakened Englands power rather than forged strong alliances.
The parallels with the religious symbolism of a virgin queen was a powerful tool and gave her an added status.